Brad Pitt is in the BP execution business, and business is booming.
The Right Stuff: The Economist picks up where I left off last week with a puff piece on Indiana governor Mitch Daniels. The article sheds some light on Daniels’ positions and challenges ahead if he wants to run for President.
More problematic, it is unclear that a clever, measured candidate stands a chance within the Republican Party. Neo-cons are allergic to talk of defence cuts. Social conservatives were rabid after Mr Daniels, anti-abortion himself, told the Weekly Standard that he favoured a temporary truce on social issues. “It just happens to be what I think,” he says, arguing that politicians need to unite on urgent matters of national security and debt. He is also unlikely to fire up tea-partiers. “Didn’t somebody say in a different context, ‘Anger is not a strategy’?” he asked your correspondent over a rare plate of steak and chips.
This attitude is refreshing, but I think The Economist is right.
Time to Raise Taxes: What’s the difference between institutional Democrats and Republicans? I’m not so sure, but both groups seem primed to raise taxes because they’re incapable of reducing the size of government. Veronique de Rugy at The Corner discusses this problem.
Even the Republicans, as a party, haven’t come out with a list of things, a list of agencies or programs, to cut. We shouldn’t consider raising taxes until we have cut spending, which shouldn’t be that hard with a $3.8 trillion budget (roughly $1.8 trillion larger than in FY 2000). Are we claiming that this $1.8 trillion increase since 2000 all went to indispensable programs that should never be cut?
Avatar: Special Edition: Didn’t catch Avatar the first time around? Well, James Cameron’s visually stunning but ultimately boring movie is being re-released. I can’t imagine sitting through it again. The special effects were amazing, but this movie will be largely forgotten in ten years. The story just isn’t compelling. Save your money and catch Pocahontas on the Disney Channel sometime instead.
The Breaking Point: You know a story has reached its full saturation point when a political science expert like Roger Ebert takes time to write about the Ground Zero Mosque. He takes time to rip Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, and Glenn Beck while at the same time citing Mein Kampf. Can Ebert just stick to reviewing movies? Oh, wait… he’s not even good at that either.
Capital Punishment: Typically, Hollywood liberals are opposed to the death penalty. The movie, The Life of David Gale is a fine example. Well, actually it’s not a good example. The idiots that put that film together were obviously anti-capital punishment, but the move actually made me wish David Gale was executed earlier in the movie. Anyway, I digress. It appears Brad Pitt is now in favor of capital punishment… for those responsible for the oil spill.
Actor Brad Pitt, whose Make it Right project has spearheaded efforts to build 150 affordable and sustainable homes in the Big Easy’s hard-hit Lower Ninth Ward, is prominently featured. Reflecting on those responsible for the oil spill, Pitt can barely contain his contempt.
“I was never for the death penalty before,” he says. “I am willing to look at it again.”
There simply isn’t enough intelligence in the world to cure Pitt’s idiocy. With all due respect, can we put Pitt to death for Legends of the Fall?
I caught this quote over at Greg Mankiw’s site. Generally I’ve always liked Dick Armey, but his comment about economist Larry Summers is just partisan hyperbole.
“I don’t consider Larry Summers a serious economist,” Armey said. “You can get a Ph.D. from Harvard without ever having seriously considered the subject.”
Now some of the things Larry Summers has said over the past year have been puzzling. It doesn’t appear like Obama has a strong economic head on his shoulders and Summers’ standing has taken a beating. That aside, it’s ridiculous to say that a Ph.D from Harvard is meaningless.
The Economist has a fine article on the state of the Middle-Class throughout the world. There’s so much pessimism and poverty hyperbole that good news is hardly ever mentioned. Believe it or not over half the world is considered middle class now. The success of free market capitalism should not be dismissed, especially in a year when there’s a contraction. No one ever promised the end of the business cycle.
It is a sad day for economists everywhere. Milton Friedman has passed away at age 94. It’s impossible to overstate Friedman’s importance to economic policy the past sixty years. His ideas have been fundamental in the unprecedented economic growth experienced in the West the past three decades. For economists everywhere Friedman’s shadow looms larger and his presence will be missed.
Milton Friedman believed that government forays into economic policy ultimately damages the economy. He argued that the measures put in place by the Federal Reserve after the 1929 stock market crash turned a severe recession into the Great Depression. The policies passed in the New Deal under FDR never helped the country pull out of the Depression, and in the long run created more problems than solutions. Friedman was also instrumental in eliminating the draft and moving the military towards a volunteer system. During the 90′s he supported school vouchers as a way to improve education. School vouchers are a great idea that Republicans never really pursued and one that the Democrat party is opposed due to their close ties to teacher unions. Despite the lack of courage of Congress to deal with many of the problems that exists Friedman’s ideas are still very much relevant today. Much can still be learned from Friedman and his legacy will live on.
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